The AAC council of Asian American/Asian-interest student organizations is organizing a series to highlight support and services for gender violence survivors in our community.
Serving Invisible Voices: Panels on UNC and local resources
Join us on Zoom on Feb. 17, 6pm
Panelists will include UNC Counseling and Psychological Services, Compass Center, and Gender Violence Services Coordinators from the Carolina Women’s Center.
Join us on Zoom on Feb. 24, 6pm [Register here]
Panelists will include the UNC Ombuds and EOC offices (others TBA).
Our student organizers found…
In 2019, the News and Observer reported that 1/3 of female undergraduate students reported a sexual assault at UNC. In a recent study done on gender violence in the context of Asian American female college students, researchers found….
- 1 in 4 Asian American women experienced gender-based assault
- 40% of those do not disclose to anyone at all
- Of those who do only 18.3% disclosed to a counseling service
- Of those who did not disclose:
- 54% felt uncomfortable
- 26% did not know who to tell
Notes from Panel I
with CAPS and Carolina Women’s Center Gender Violence Services Coordinators
CAPS
Dr. Allen O’Barr – Director of CAPS
- Mission is to serve students in any way they can
- Limited resources
- Vision is to continually evolve to meet ongoing needs of students
- Mental health services were predominantly framed as white
- Evolving to broader mental health services has been difficult and slow
- Multicultural health program
- Resources but work needed
- Only on 1 year funding
- CAPS has 5 medication providers, 17 counselors,
- Referral coordination program – Have to refer 30% students to others due to lack of resources/capacity
- Losing 2 counselors in July
- Same day walk-ins
- Have 5-6 people every day prepared for this
- Many Asian American UNC students are second or third generation immigrant students, meaning that they may have Asian parents. This dynamic may come with generational differences in which they may be discouraged from seeking help from or disclosing to your organization. Can you give an outline of your current/or future plan be to proactively reach out to Asian American students at UNC or in the community? How is that different from a plan for proactively reaching out to other racial/cultural populations?
- CAPS has not been able to invest in proactive outreach; it is reactive due to funding/limitations in services
- Many centers devote at least 1 entire position to this
- Working on cultural understanding
- Staff has joined caucuses
- Multicultural health program has reduced direct service programs to expand on proactive outreach
- One of the important factors in serving an Asian American population is representation. From many of our perspectives, we tend to be much more comfortable to disclose when we are around someone who looks like us, understands the diversity of our cultures, understands the tropes/stereotypes that may be rendered upon us and how that may operationalize in our lives. Subsequently, do you have Asian American representation in your staff and how are they/or could you put them in the best position to serve our nuanced population?
- In recruiting, it is difficult to get Asian/Asian American candidates
- Perhaps due to where positions are being advertised
- Earlier they were paying 70% of national average salary to counselors
- Now 90% of national average salary
- Training program for pre-doc psych students who need 1 year internship and other training programs where they maintain very diverse group of students
- Have had 5 Southeast Asian staff members in the past, but currently none
- HR does not permit the use of the word “diversity” in advertisements for postings
- Makes it difficult to recruit diverse individuals
- Focusing on Asian/Asian American/ LatinX representation in staff and services as next steps
- Asian American culture is vast and very diverse. Asians are very different from Asian Americans. In addition, our cultures may vary depending on our ethnicity. Asian Americans with east Asian roots may have far different religious belief systems, food choices, clothing styles, etc. than South Asians. Do you currently or do you plan to give cultural competence training to any of your employees? What might a program like that look like?
- Was not fully aware of the extent to which there are differences between different Asian roots; not sure of where to learn about this through trainings but is very open to it
- Referral process lack of representation leads to people having to pay for services that actually work for them
- Refer out people who will require more than a semester’s worth of sessions
- Long term counselling is referred out (long term is about past and how it comes up now)
- Don’t know of many Asian individuals in the community who they can refer people to
- People are referred to referral coordinators – focus on travel, insurance, etc
- Try to refer people into places where their insurance covers it
- If no insurance/insurance with very high deductible, referral coordinator should address this
- If referral coordinator does not address this and you are in a situation where you are paying full cost with no insurance, contact Dr. O’Barr DIRECTLY; he is committed to finding a way to make it work
- Limitations in funding, but have the capacity to help students gain access to the mental health services they need when they are facing financial barriers
- About multiracial/multiethnic students:
- Staff focus on their own perspectives/implicit biases
- They don’t ask students to educate them, but staff knows they have to actively reverse the white supremacist foundation that services are based on
- Working on transgenerational trauma
- Very open to dialogue
Contact Information:
Healthyheels on instagram and twitter
Carolina Women’s Center
- Gender violence services coordinators – Holly and Kayla
- Gender violence services in the context of sexual violence, sexual exploitation, stalking, any gender based violences
- Anyone is welcome
- People can meet GVSC as many times as they need, use these services as they need
- Can talk through academic support, safety plans and connect to campus and community resources (also provides to local connections since everyone is not necessarily on campus due to COVID)
- Explores reporting options with students
- Can help coordinate meetings and accompany students to meetings so they do not need to be alone
- Many Asian American UNC students are second or third generation immigrant students, meaning that they may have Asian parents. This dynamic may come with generational differences in which they may be discouraged from seeking help from or disclosing to your organization. Can you give an outline of your current/or future plan be to proactively reach out to Asian American students at UNC or in the community? How is that different from a plan for proactively reaching out to other racial/cultural populations?
- Only 2 GVSCs on campus
- Mostly focus on direct service, and helping students navigate their concerns
- Join panels, meetings, etc when members from community reach out to them
- Advocating for their resources – need more staff to focus on outreach
- Want to emphasize that this is a service that can be shared out to the entire community
- One of the important factors in serving an Asian American population is representation. From many of our perspectives, we tend to be much more comfortable to disclose when we are around someone who looks like us, understands the diversity of our cultures, understands the tropes/stereotypes that may be rendered upon us and how that may operationalize in our lives. Subsequently, do you have Asian American representation in your staff and how are they/or could you put them in the best position to serve our nuanced population?
- White, cis-gendered, able-bodied women who recognize that their identities are not very diverse
- It’s something that they wish they can expand on and advocate for in the expansion in the women’s center
- Making sure to have continuous education from various resources
- New trainings each week, conversations, spaces about advocacy and helping how to navigate through experiences
- Focus on what the person seeking services truly needs out of GVSC
- Help people feel informed even prior to connection
- Respect everyone, consider what they can do to make their services most accessible
- Currently online, earlier were in the carolina women’s center, which could be barring to certain gender identities
- Are open to meeting anywhere
- Open to having friends, mentors anyone who makes the student comfortable present at meetings
- Asian American culture is vast and very diverse. Asians are very different from Asian Americans. In addition, our cultures may vary depending on our ethnicity. Asian Americans with east Asian roots may have far different religious belief systems, food choices, clothing styles, etc. than South Asians. Do you currently or do you plan to give cultural competence training to any of your employees? What might a program like that look like?
- Hopeful for more conversations/trainings that could shed light on this
- Trainings on anti-racism
- Open to hearing from the community about what they should be trained on
- What about multiracial/multiethnic students?
- Leave it up to people to start where they feel most comfortable
- Speak about what’s specific to their lived experiences
- Focus on navigating in the moment about the intersections that are personal to them
- Does not assume
Gender Violence Services Coordinators:
919-962-1343
Instagram: @uncgvsc
Website: Gender Violence Services – Carolina Women’s Center (unc.edu)
When you reach out to GVSC, you don’t need to give specifics. You can just say “I want to meet” and they will follow up. If you leave a voicemail, just leave a phone number that is safe to return the call.
Notes from Panel II
with UNC Ombuds Office, Compass Center (Orange County non-profit), and UNC Office of Diversity and Inclusion
UNC Ombuds
Dawn Osborne-Adams, Director
- Place where people can talk openly, privately about any issues they have at Carolina
- Services in 3 areas:
- Consultation (casework)
- Facilitation (neutral party within a group or multiple parties)
- Systemic work (work with various groups of people on campus to impact the broader institution/community as a whole)
- #3 referral from the GVSC, after the EOC and police
How do services differ for Asian Americans?
- Services are same regardless of the issue because they are on the individual level and with same, high-level care
- Acknowledge that identity is important, but in this case they strive to serve everyone well regardless of this
The Asian American culture is very vast and diverse. There are lots of tropes and stereotypes rendered upon us. What does Asian American representation look like in your office and do we have the capacity in the office to serve this nuanced population?
The Asian American culture is very vast and diverse. There are lots of tropes and stereotypes rendered upon us. What does Asian American representation look like in your office and do we have the capacity in the office to serve this nuanced population?
- Small office
- Wanting and needing to learn more, and have not gotten around to really doing much more outreach and doing this
- Need more feedback
In resources, there is a lot of referral between different services. If all the offices lack representation, how would needs be met? Is there a plan for cultural competence training? Who would facilitate that type of training?
- Focus on cultural humility, rather than cultural competence
- Acknowledges that there needs to be awareness/openness to learn about cultures
- Would be useful to learn about how conflict arises in different cultural contexts
Asian Americans don’t really report their conflicts as much. Is this an issue with our resources? How do we become more proactive?
- Need to go into more spaces
- Non-white students typically come to this office much further down the road of conflict than white students
- This puts them in positions of less options/resources
Compass Center
Valerie Sauer, Director of Education Programs
- Non-profit agency that serves all of Orange County
- Supports people as they navigate through self-sufficiency, safety and health
- Domestic violence service agency
- 24/7 crisis line
- Emotional support
- Safety planning
- Support in pursuing DV protective orders
- Opened shelter
- Free mental health services for survivors
- Self-sufficiency services (open to EVERYONE)
- Career and preparedness services
- Financial education programs
- Budgeting
- How to improve credit score
- Legal information services
- Partner with attorneys in area to provide information centering around family law and landlord-tenant issues
- Education and youth prevention services
- 2 adolescent empowerment programs
- Start strong – program in middle schools
- Discuss healthy, unhealthy, abusive relationships
- Start strong – program in middle schools
- 2 adolescent empowerment programs
Teens Climb High – comprehensive sexual health program
How do services change for Asian Americans?
- They let the individuals lead where the conversation goes
- Services adapt to what the client is needing/asking for and ensuring that if this changes, they are still here to help
The Asian American culture is very vast and diverse. There are lots of tropes and stereotypes rendered upon us. What does Asian American representation look like in your office and do you have the capacity in the office to serve this nuanced population?
- 2 staff members who identify as South Asian
- 1 is client-facing
- When working with trauma, there is this double-edged sword of providing very-high level personal care and sustainable work for the staff themselves
- There is some pushback on this idea that you need literal representation in staff identity in order to serve students of that same identity because that places high burden on that individual staff member
In resources, there is a lot of referral between different services. If all the offices lack representation, how would needs be met? Is there a plan for cultural competence training? Who would facilitate that type of training?
- Resistance to the idea of cultural competence as if it is something to be achieved
- Focus on cultural humility
- Everyone goes through REI trainings – not really centered around the experience of Asian Americans
- Internal trainings on intersectionality in the context of domestic violence, racism, white supremacy
- Majority of the Asian Americans they interact with are seeking services in regards to power and control dynamics with their parents
- Asian community members they serve is a much more vast population
- Refugees from Burma
Asian Americans don’t really report their conflicts as much. Is this an issue with our resources? How do we become more proactive?
- We need to build trust
- Reach out to organizations to partner so that students have the information to understand their own experiences
- Conflict between cultural and social norms
UNC Office of Diversity and Inclusion
Ew Quimbaya-Winship , Report and Response Coordinator
- Intake of reports from campus community regarding harassment, discrimination
- Title IX reports
- Private resource for documenting concerns
- FERPA – services center around confidentiality
- Ensure that all students are aware of their reporting options, services available
- Can begin investigations to gather information around reports
- Response programs
- Education Programs to spread policy and procedure-based information around the office
- Provide faculty and staff accommodations for disabilities
- Provide religious accomodations
- I.e. if there is a religious observance during exams
- Accomodations for parenting/pregnant students, faculty and staff
Safe.unc.edu -resources internally and externally
How do services change for Asian Americans?
- If they are notified of sexual violence, the report makes its way to the EOC
- Students are provided with emails with all the information they need to know, options of groups/services that are pertinent to them
- Often takes multiple meetings to really hear about the incident that occurs; focus on building rapport first
- There are options on who to talk to within the EOC, many options for confidentiality
The Asian American culture is very vast and diverse. There are lots of tropes and stereotypes rendered upon us. What does Asian American representation look like in your office and do we have the capacity in the office to serve this nuanced population?
- When there is the opportunity to learn, they go to that space
- Committed to learning about sociocultural nuances
- Emphasis on showing up for students – learning, listening, reflecting back
In resources, there is a lot of referral between different services. If all the offices lack representation, how would needs be met? Is there a plan for cultural competence training? Who would facilitate that type of training?
- HAVEN training
- Spent time in these past few months converting this into an online training
- UNC-centric definition of consent
- Keep conversation open because trainings are specified
- Keeps it open to dialogue
Asian Americans don’t really report their conflicts as much. Is this an issue with our resources? How do we become more proactive?
- Gender/sexual violence services fields are predominantly led by white women
- Need to make sure that service-providers are being held accountable, show up for all communities, build trust (though this takes a lot of time)
- Build trust in the office in addition to building trust in individuals working there